


Hey, Pretty Boy

by KrastBannert



Series: We Will Become Silhouettes [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Bending (Avatar), Angst, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Love at First Sight, Not Beta Read, Romance, Songfic, Young Love, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28063857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrastBannert/pseuds/KrastBannert
Summary: [“Hey, pretty boy!”She doesn’t know what possesses her. Something just…comes over her, and she shouts, and when he glances her way, it’s like everything she knows has just been turned upside down. She can’t explain it. He doesn’t do anything but flash her a toothy smile and a jaunty, two-fingered salute. He doesn’t say anything – not a single word.<But that’s okay. She’s already breathless.]------The story of a boy and a girl, and a love that ends far, far too soon.
Relationships: Sokka/Yue (Avatar)
Series: We Will Become Silhouettes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053002
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Hey, Pretty Boy

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if this qualifies as a songfic or not, but it was most certainly inspired by a song - 'Bishounen' by Hikaru Station. The moment I first heard the song on Spotify, I instantly thought of Sokka and Yue. And I knew I was going to write a Sokka/Yue fic for it.
> 
> It's become one of my favorite songs in the past couple months, and it's so incredibly sad, but I love it all the same. I'm listening to it as I type this, and all I can hope is that I did the story of Sokka and Yue some kind of justice.
> 
> For reference, they're both in high school in this fic.
> 
> If anyone's curious, [here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da0GozMHUyU) the clip from _Bones_ that gets mentioned. It's from Season 8, Episode 13. Maybe it is just a crime show, but _Bones_ is a crime show with a heart of pure gold. I highly recommend it.

“Hey, pretty boy!”

She doesn’t know what possesses her. Something just…comes over her, and she shouts, and when he glances her way, it’s like everything she knows has just been turned upside down. She can’t explain it. He doesn’t do anything but flash her a toothy smile and a jaunty, two-fingered salute. He doesn’t say anything – not a single word.

But that’s okay. She’s already breathless.

She grins up at him, bats her eyes as the boat drifts under the bridge, and she thinks she sees him open his mouth, but then he’s gone. She sighs, wraps her arms up in her parka. Her eyes drift close, and her mind wanders, and she thinks about him.

About this boy she’s just seen, this boy whose face is already glued onto the back of her eyelids. She can’t get rid of it. His stupid, cheeky grin that makes his entire face glow like an aurora.

She can’t help but wonder where he’s going, and why no one is with him.

-[-]-

Friday comes, and it’s a three-day weekend, so she sneaks out of her father’s house, ambles down the streets with no particular place in mind.

She wanders down Main Street, wrapped up in her parka and jackets against the November chill, soaking in the night life. She gets to the corner of Main and Fifth, and out of some gut feeling, she turns – and there he is.

It’s _him_ \- pretty boy. He’s in the coffee shop on the corner that never seems to close, and as she watches he tosses his head back and _laughs_. She tries to imagine what his laugh sounds like, wonders if she’ll ever get to hear it.

Oh, who is she kidding? She has nowhere else to be.

The bell on the door chimes as she walks in, and he doesn’t hear her. He’s too focused on someone next to him, someone she hadn’t seen, a girl, maybe a year or two younger than him. There’s a deep, sharp pang in her chest and she falters, but the more she looks, the more hope swells in her. They look too similar; brother and sister, perhaps.

She tosses her hair over her shoulder, smiles, steps up to the table, and purrs,” Hey, pretty boy.”

He startles out of his seat, eyes bulging, and he nearly chokes on the muffin he’d just jammed in his mouth. He splutters for a moment until a strange, determined glint appears in his eye, and he holds up a hand in a ‘ _one moment_ ’ gesture and starts _chewing_.

She can’t help but laugh, watching him struggle to move his jaw, but somehow, he manages to not just chew but _demolish_ the muffin. He grins widely, triumphantly as he finishes, but there’s a blush in his cheeks that just makes her smile.

“Come on, _pretty boy_ ,” the girl next to him smirks,” don’t be shy, say hello already!”

He laughs and oh, _Tui_ , it’s so beautiful, like…like listening to harbor gulls on a quiet, sunny morning. At least, that’s the best thing she can think of to describe the warmth that builds in her chest. Her cheeks grow hot and she’s knows she’s blushing, but she can’t help herself.

That laugh is music.

“Don’t tease me, Katara,” the boy mutters, but when he turns back to her, there’s a shy grin spreading across his lips.” I, uh, I’m…I’m Sokka.”

“I’m Yue,” she replies, and when he asks her what she’s doing here, she answers,” Well, it’s a Friday night, I snuck out, and you could say I’m a little bored.”

Sokka looks over at Katara – his sister, to her _immense_ relief – and looks back at Yue.

“Wanna fix that?” he with a hopeful grin. A little tendril of warmth shudders through her, and she feels, she _knows_ that something, somewhere out there, is trying to tell her something.

Well, how could she say no?

-[-]-

Yue saves his name in her phone as simply ‘Pretty Boy’. Sokka complains about it, telling her over and over to stop teasing him, but she can’t, not when he flashes that cute, goofy grin and his eyes crinkle in a way that makes her melt.

It’s like he’s everywhere in her life, and she wonders how she’s never seen him.

They go to the same school, have some of the same classes, live only a few blocks away from each other. They slot into each other’s lives so easily like it's meant to be, like when she looks into his eyes, the stars themselves align and everything just feels right.

They spend more and more time together – getting food together after school, late nights studying in their rooms, gaming together until the early hours of the morning on weekends. She goes to his rugby matches; he comes to the art exhibitions she’s a part of. He meets her father, and the man is instantly enamored by him. But Sokka is like that - charming everyone he meets. They go for long drives on nights she can get away and they get dinner at no-name diners hours away from home. When he has plans and they fall through for one reason or another, he calls her. Every time.

At a certain point, she starts to think he’s making up the part about having plans, and she blushes when she realizes what that must mean.

-[-]-

“So,” he says.

“So,” she replies, setting the water pistol down and accepting the stuffed polar bear bog as a token of victory.

It’s the Winter Solstice Festival, the shortest day of the year. Every year, it’s marked with a massive festival. One Sokka had, apparently, never been to, something Yue regards as a tragedy that must be rectified.

It was always her favorite festival, and she just had to prove to him that could kick his ass at water pistol shooting.

“Yue, I, uh…I was wondering if…” he stutters, and he’s interrupted by a sudden shout of,” Hey, Sokka, Yue! Come here!”

Yue can’t help but laugh and dance over to Aang and Katara.” Come on, Sokka! Let’s go!”

Sokka groans, but when she turns, he’s smiling as he jogs after her. Somehow his hands – they catch her eye, and she has a thought.

“You know,” she says, completely on instinct. She’s not sure what she’s doing, except that it feels right.” You’re hand’s empty. It’s a shame, isn’t it?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah it is,” he stammers out.” That’s actually…that’s, uh, that’s actually what I was going to talk to you about.”

She laughs, and his face goes red as she slips her hand into his. Just the simple touch somehow short circuits her brain and makes warmth flare throughout her entire being, and as she laces her fingers through his, she feels like dancing through the rings of Saturn.

But the best they have is the falling snow, twinkling in the moonlight, and to be honest, as he spins her around and back into his grip, she thinks she’d rather have the snow.

“I love how your hair looks in the moonlight,” Sokka says. Her cheeks flush, and warmth pools in her gut, and she can’t help but stare at him, stare at his lips. He’s staring down at her, too.

“Just my hair?” she asks.

“Don’t tease me,” he growls, but then he sighs, and there’s a look in his eyes.” I love the way _all_ of you looks in the moonlight.”

They’re staring up at each other and suddenly she’s standing up as he leans down, and somewhere in the middle, they finally, _finally_ meet.

She sighs into his lips as he wraps his arms around her, pulling her in close. His lips are rough and chapped from the cold but he’s so soft and gentle and tastes sweet like the cotton candy they’d been splitting, and Yue has never in her life tasted anything better. When she pulls back, she raises an eyebrow.

“Wow,” he breathes, his face splitting in a breathless grin.” Can we…can we do that again?”

She giggles, and instead of answering, cups his cheeks with her mittens and kisses him again. And again. And again. As many breath-taking times as she can.

(They don’t spend much longer at the festival.)

-[-]-

He calls her, something that happens all the time, but this time his voice seems cracked. When she asks what’s wrong, he just says,” I’m fine.”

They both know it’s a lie. But he won’t talk. He never does. He carries his burdens alone, sometimes, and she doesn’t know why, but she hates it.

“Wanna Netflix and chill?” she asks him instead.” We can marathon all your favorite shows!”

When he gets to her house there’s tears on his sleeves, and it cracks her heart in two to see his red-rimmed eyes. They curl up on the couch in the basement, throw on the newest episode of _Bones_ they’d got up to.

_‘Well, that’s-that’s it…from me. To you.’_ Booth says, David Boreanaz’s voice echoing in the silence of the room. Sokka has barely said a word, and when Yue turns to look up at him, there’s tear tracks on his cheeks. She mindlessly reaches up, wipes away a tear she sees falling.

“Seven years ago today,” Sokka whispers shallowly, his face anchored on the screen,” my mother was killed.”

She puts her arms around him, squeezes him tightly, but doesn’t say a word. He melts into her arms, just as her heart is melting for him, and he clutches at her shoulders like she’s an anchor. If that’s all he wants, she’ll gladly be that for him.

She tugs him over, cradles his head to her chest. She runs a hand through his hair as he shudders in her arms.” I found a letter from her, and…and…sometimes I just feel so alone…”

“It’s alright, Sokka,” she murmurs,” to feel alone.”

When he finally lifts his head, and his eyes look into hers, she reaches up, places a kiss on his forehead, just between his brows.

“Just know you’re not.”

He buries his head in her chest, and he cries, cries, and _cries_. He’s almost silent as he breaks, almost completely silent, and somehow that’s even more heartbreaking than hearing him bawl and scream. He cries through the end of the episode, cries until he’s practically asleep, and she slithers out from underneath him when he finally drifts off. She has a plan.

When he wakes, she’s got a bowl of five-flavor soup and a plate of fresh seal jerky waiting on the table for him, and he looks up at her and, eyes wide-eyed and blown with adoration, blurts out,” I love you.”

He shies away, stammering out some excuse, and she’s so blown away but she – she can’t listen to him. She can’t. She can’t because she knows what she feels.

She stops him with a kiss, and as she crawls into her boyfriend’s lap and feeds him seal jerky bite by bite, she whispers the words the words she’s never dreamed they’d say to each other, not so soon, but that she knows are so, so true. She whispers them over and over and over, as if just by repeating them she can sear them into his heart to repair his broken edges.

“I love you, too.”

-[-]-

It had taken them a month to kiss, and only two to say those three, magical words, those words that are so simple, yet mean so much more than either of them could ever truly say.

She _loves_ him.

She’s never imagined someone like Sokka, never even _dreamt_ of someone so strong, so smart, so kind and caring.

She’s never imagined she could be so deeply in love with someone that it feels like she’s known them her _entire_ life, like the universe itself has brought them here, to be together, to be one.

Two months becomes three, and then four, and suddenly it’s been six months. Six months of laughter and joy, six months of loving like she’d never quite realized she could.

They flash by like a dream, and if those six months are a dream, it’s the best she’s ever had.

But like every dream, it has to end someday.

-[-]-

“Hey, pretty boy,” she smiles weakly. Sokka smiles back, leans across the bed to kiss her cheek.

“Hey, moon girl,” he whispers back. Her heart warms at the nickname, but there’s something torn in his voice that cracks her in two. She knows why. She understands.

Breast cancer. Stage four. She had been diagnosed four months ago, and she’d been doing well, _so_ well, but suddenly it had just…gone wild. First her intestines, then her pancreas and her blood, and treatment was doing nothing. She knew what was happening, even if the doctors wouldn’t say it.

“I don’t…I…I’ve run out of time,” she manages to get out.

Sokka shakes his head, eyes going wide.” No, Yue, no, don’t…don’t say that! The doctors – th-they’ll find _something_ \- “

“Hey,” she interrupts, presses a finger to his lips.” It’s okay.” Sokka stops, looks in her eyes, nods. He takes wraps his around hers, laces their fingers together.

“But…how?”

“It just…is,” she shrugs quietly.” I’ve run out of time, but I…I want you to…to be mine.”

His eyes go wide.” Are you…are you saying?”

She nods.

Hours later, in that hospital room, the one that had become her home away from home, she takes the last big step she can.

She’s strapped into a dozen monitors she doesn’t understand and wearing her hospital gown, he’s wearing ratty jeans and t-shirt. Katara, teary-eyed Katara who’s been with her nearly as much Sokka has, deems herself her maid of honor, and Sokka coerces Aang into being his best man. Nurses and doctors and patients crowd around the room as Sokka presents a betrothal necklace made from scraps – a moon, carved on a bottle cap that’s hung from a couple pieces of string – and it’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen.

Tears fall from everyone’s eyes as Yue’s grandmother gives them the traditional way, paints the ‘Mark of the Loved’ on their foreheads.

Sokka slips a silver-and-sapphire ring onto her finger, and says through tears that he’ll never, ever be able to forget her, and by the end of his speech she’s crying, crying for a future she’ll never know but she can see now so clearly, and she’s never been more in love with him than in this moment.

She gets through her vows, somehow, but by the time she’s finishes, and the priest declares them husband and wife, she’s so, so tired, and they can all feel what’s going to happen. They can hear it, hear the beeps on the EKG machine getting farther and farther apart.

“I always wondered how long this daydream would last,” she whispers, cupping her husband’s cheek with his hand. Sokka smiles, but his eyes don’t crinkle. Not like they used to. The spark is in his eyes, but it’s dying, it’s dying and she doesn’t want it to die. The EKG starts to slow, and she can see the panic in his eyes.

With all her strength she leans up, tugs him down to tip their foreheads together.” Hey, pretty boy, don’t give me such a sad look because I’m gone. It’s not for forever.”

He nods, leans her back down, and he presses a kiss to her lips, tastes salty tears. Sokka has always been private, and even now, his tears are quiet. There’s no histrionics, no violent sobs, just the silent breaking of one of the strongest men she’s ever known. She gives her husband’s hand a squeeze.

“Bye…pretty boy,” she whispers against his lips as the machine beeps one last time.

“Let’s…meet again…someday.”

**Author's Note:**

> Normally I'm a bit of a sarcastic ass in my author's notes and in my comments, but...something about that doesn't quite feel right this time. I've been thinking a lot about duty while I was writing this. About people like Yue, who put service, who put others, before themselves. I could wax poetic about it, but I won't. Not now. Nothing I could say would do justice. Let's just say I know what I'm writing when Memorial Day swings around in May.
> 
> In addition: cancer's a bitch. I haven't lost anyone to it myself, but I've come way closer than I ever wanted to, closer than I ever want to again. And even today, 10+ years later, one of them is still feeling the effects. It's a scourge, but it's one that, one day, we can beat. If you have the spare cash, find a good charity, and donate.
> 
> I might write a follow-up for this where Sokka meets Suki; I have an idea for how to start it, but we'll see if I end up doing it. I've got Ashmaker - Chapter IV that I'm procrastinating on, and other fics in both this modern AU and in my other A:TLA series to write. But, if the people demand a follow up, it will be written.
> 
> I really hope you enjoyed this story. Like I said: I really hope I did them justice. Kudos are always appreciated, and if you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them in the comments. ~~I keep thinking about getting a new Tumblr, so if I decide to make one, I'll add the link in the note here and you can come yell at me there.~~
> 
> Edit 2/6/2021: I made that Tumblr; I'm [@krastbannert](https://krastbannert.tumblr.com/). If you enjoy ATLA, the Dragon Prince, and assorted other bullshit, come check it out!
> 
> Stay safe out there, my dudes.


End file.
